IELTS Writing Task 1

Well, this time I am going to have a review on rare types of task one in IELTS writing exam. But before that let’s have a review on the more popular ones.

As you all have studied in classes we have 4 main types of writing task 1, namely:

1-      Time based bar charts, graphs, tables and sometimes pie charts

2-      Surveys which appear in the form of bar charts, pie charts or tables

3-      Data distribution bar charts, pie charts and tables

4-      Diagrams which can be grouped into the following types:

a.      Processes and life cycles

b.      How things work

c.       Timelines

d.      Maps

e.      Organizational flow charts

As you all know we don’t cover diagrams in our writing handouts since they are mostly discussed in your reading handouts. In these series I am going to cover these types in more depth and we will practically learn how to write about these types in a structured and well organized way. And please be advised that you won’t find this classification anywhere else in IELTS textbooks. We have provided this classification in order to free you as the writer from the appearance of the writing task and help you focus on what you need to write and how to organize your essay in the best way possible.

The first type of diagrams which I am going to discuss is the processes and life cycles. When describing processes we need to describe the following items:

1-      The different stages

2-      The actions happening in each stage

3-      The parts and equipment used in each stage

4-      The method of doing actions

5-      The purpose of each stage and the whole process

Let’s take the following process and write a sample for it step by step.

The diagram below shows the typical stages of consumer goods manufacturing, including the process by which information is fed back to earlier stages to enable adjustment.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the process shown.

In order to prevent a long post I’ll write the detailed description for the process in my next post. Meanwhile you can take a piece of paper and try to write a sample for yourselves to compare it with mine and to realize what your weaknesses and problems in writing about a process are.

Take care and so long.